Channel 5 boss tipped to head ITV

Jon Rees12 April 2012

CHANNEL 5 chief executive Dawn Airey is favourite to become head of ITV, despite having ruled herself out of a lesser job at the troubled station only days ago.

Officially, ITV is looking for a replacement for David Liddiment, its director of channels. He resigned last month but agreed to stay on until a successor was found.

Airey, 41, said last month that she was not interested in being director of programmes - effectively Liddiment's job. But ITV executives are understood to be in discussion with her about the position of chief executive. They are keen to make an appointment before the start of the crucial autumn schedule.

The last chief executive of ITV was Stuart Prebble. He was also in charge of ITV Digital, which was put into administration in March with debts of more than £1.2bn. Since Prebble's resignation in May, the network has been run by joint managing directors Clive Jones of Carlton and Mick Desmond of Granada.

However, executives at Carlton and Granada are understood to regard Airey as their best hope of reviving the fortunes of the network, which is suffering from declining audience share and a significant fall in advertising revenues.

She has impressed them with her handling of Channel 5, which has won bigger audiences and seen advertising grow significantly in difficult market conditions. Airey was director of programmes at Channel 5 before she was made chief executive in autumn 2000.

Airey, though, is proving difficult to woo. She fears that any role at ITV would be dominated by Carlton and Granada, which between them account for about 80% of ITV revenues. Executives at the two companies have traditionally been reluctant to allow the chief executive of the network to run the business without interference.

And the two companies are expected to merge soon. That would alter the relationship between the chief executive of the network and the ITV franchise holders. On top of that, Carlton and Granada have a fraught relationship.

However, these obstacles are not regarded as insurmountable by ITV executives. One said: 'Airey knows all about working with difficult shareholders because Channel 5's shareholders, RTL and United Business Media, loathe each other. And the ITV job is a much bigger job than Channel 5.'

Channel 5's annual programme budget is about £140m compared with ITV's £775m this year.

Airey is in line for a big bonus if Channel 5 reaches its audience targets, though its original target of ten% share looks unlikely as digital TV becomes more popular.

Channel 5 took a 6.38% audience share in the first half of this year compared with 5.63% in the same period in 2001.

Lorraine Heggessey, controller of BBC1, is also on the shortlist - and though BBC1 is in the ascendant over ITV1 now, the commercial network would be prepared to pay highly for her services.

She is regarded as a high-flyer at the BBC, but she could return to the Corporation after a couple of years with her reputation enhanced if she succeeded in turning round ITV.

Kevin Lygo, Airey's own director of programmes at Channel 5, is also highly regarded and has been instrumental in its successful move upmarket in recent months.

Other candidates from within the ITV network include Steve Hewlett, director of programmes at Carlton, and Grant Mansfield, director of Granada's content in southern England, but they are considered rank outsiders. The smart money is still on Airey.

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